Grange Park

I didn't get home until midnight last night, so this is a catch-up blip. On route to the farm from London, we went to Grange Park country house opera. They were performing my favourite opera, Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", and it was a wonderful production. It's one of those black tie events, where everyone wafts around the garden with a glass of champagne :-))

Grange Park itself is a ruined Greek Revival house built in 1804. The roof has collapsed in places and the plaster has fallen off the walls. A small theatre has been built inside one of the wings using Covent Garden's discarded red velvet chairs. Several rooms have been made "habitable" for supper by putting paintings on the shabby walls and hanging chandeliers from the remaining rafters. It's a unique place to have dinner. The film of Pushkin's novella "Eugene Onegin" with Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler was made there - it's the house that Onegin inherits in the country. And it was such a gorgeous evening - so rare in England!